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Brain candy for Happy MutantsSun, 02 Aug 2015 19:28:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2The thrill of cleaning in video gameshttp://boingboing.net/2015/05/11/the-thrill-of-cleaning-in-vide.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/05/11/the-thrill-of-cleaning-in-vide.html#commentsMon, 11 May 2015 19:22:29 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=387066For lots of commercial games, being able to spatter the walls with viscera or to leave a mess of smashed barrels and crates behind is part of the abandon.]]>For lots of commercial games, being able to spatter the walls with viscera or to leave a mess of smashed barrels and crates behind is part of the abandon. But aren't people often just as driven by the urge to clean up?

Last night in Bloodborne I found a ghostly lecture hall, a theatre where plain wooden chairs faced the blackboard in tidy rows. I found that I could smash the chairs. And then I did not stop until I had smashed every last one. It felt like I was decompressing, and yet I did it methodically.

I got nothing more than a sense of satisfaction for smashing every single chair. What I get from Bloodborne in general is the thrill of owning spaces, getting stronger and stronger until I can run powerfully and freely through areas I once navigated incompletely and fearfully. One of my favorite things games let me do is "one hundred percent" things, completing maps and mastering areas. Nothing makes me happier until every secret wall is crumbled, every lecture hall chair lies in ruins, every monster is dead and all is quiet.

In a way, what I'm doing is cleaning. It's the same urge that makes one suddenly decide to organize, to vacuum, as if gaining control over the space around you will offer some psychic relief, or will constitute, to you, some sense of progress. The pleasure in many games comes from putting things in order; I'm hardly the first to say that Tetris, for example, is about "tidying up", stacking things in an orderly way so that they go away, are cleared, leaving a neat space.

Sometimes I like to pretend that people are watching me play Tetris. Or Klax, or Lumines. I bet a lot of people who play video games have that urge to show everyone: look how tidy I can be. But what if you could actually enter game spaces after someone else, and have a different job? What would you think, if you saw my lecture hall full of smashed chairs?

According to Nolan Richert, another designer and programmer working on the game, the intent is to show “familiar situations from a different perspective—the perspective of someone who gets to see the worst of things when all glory is gone,” he told me via email. “Whether it's the violence of a typical action game or the machinations of powerful corporations, they both look as ridiculous as they are from the perspective of the janitor.”

Soha also speaks to the creator of another unusual upcoming cleanup game, and examines games' frequent, absurd junction of the methodical with the grotesque.]]>

Ecstasy Of Order: The Tetris Masters is a 2011 documentary telling the story of Robin Mihara, a "Tetris superfan" who convened a global Tetris championship in 2010 in Los Angeles, assembling a collection of the greatest Tetris players on earth.

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Ecstasy Of Order: The Tetris Masters is a 2011 documentary telling the story of Robin Mihara, a "Tetris superfan" who convened a global Tetris championship in 2010 in Los Angeles, assembling a collection of the greatest Tetris players on earth. The movie's official site has lots more on the event and the documentary, which looks very exciting indeed.

Tetris. We've all played it, rotating the pieces and dropping them in the perfect place, or despairing as we discover a piece won't fit. You may have even joked about 'mastering' the game. But what about the people who've truly mastered Tetris? Where are the Kasparovs and Fischers, the great champions who've dedicated their minds to solving its deepest puzzles?

Ecstasy of Order tracks down just such a group of record- holding Tetris Masters as they prepare to compete in the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship. Get an up-close look at the Masters as they reveal their secrets, recount their decades-long obsession with the game, and enter the transcendental state required to reach the highest levels known as the 'Ecstasy of Order'.

http://boingboing.net/2013/08/04/documentary-on-the-first-tetri.html/feed0Dream of Pixels: Tetris in reverse!http://boingboing.net/2012/11/13/dream-of-pixels-tetris-in-rev.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/11/13/dream-of-pixels-tetris-in-rev.html#commentsTue, 13 Nov 2012 16:09:46 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=193834Dream of Pixels reverses time on the best game of Tetris you ever had: a grid of blocks lies already complete, and you have to unpack the tetrominoes that fell to create it.]]>Dream of Pixels reverses time on the best game of Tetris you ever had: a grid of blocks lies already complete, and you have to unpack the tetrominoes that fell to create it.

The iOS version is coming out on Thursday, but you can play the prototype—which lacks the full game's beautiful graphics&dash;for free on the web. At the official website, developers Dawn of Play promise 5 types of play, amazing music, and a "Zen"puzzle mode for people who like to take their time. [via Free Indie Games]]]>

I have just ordered this seven-piece reconfigurable Tetris light set, which automatically turns on when all the pieces are stacked together.

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I have just ordered this seven-piece reconfigurable Tetris light set, which automatically turns on when all the pieces are stacked together. I bet it sucks; if it does, I'm going to go right ahead and make my own 6ft tall version out of plexiglass squares and LED lamps.

http://boingboing.net/2012/07/27/tetris-lights.html/feed14Tetris: mere ruleset or copyrighted expression?http://boingboing.net/2012/06/25/tetris-defined.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/25/tetris-defined.html#commentsMon, 25 Jun 2012 14:10:16 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=167517What makes Tetris Tetris? The mobile app explosion threw gasoline on the game's already-numbing history of copyright battles. At Ars Technica, Kyle Orland takes a look at the Tetris Company's endless efforts to kill them.]]>What makes Tetris Tetris? The mobile app explosion threw gasoline on the game's already-numbing history of copyright battles. At Ars Technica, Kyle Orland takes a look at the Tetris Company's endless efforts to kill them. These efforts hinge on a seemingly straightforward question: is Tetris simple enough to be defined by a set of rules (to which copyright cannot apply) or does it qualify as protected expression?]]>http://boingboing.net/2012/06/25/tetris-defined.html/feed9